Hawk
Masculine · “the bird of prey”
Hawk is a bird and one of the shortest words in English that names one. It has been an English surname since the Middle Ages, given to falconers and to men thought to resemble the bird, and it belongs to a group of American names taken straight from the animals: Wolf, Bear, Fox and Hawk.
How old is the name Hawk?
Hawk first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Hawk is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Hawk are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hawk most popular?
Hawk peaked in 2017, reaching #1768 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 3,277 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hafoc to Hawk
The story of Hawk
Falconry was a serious business in medieval England, with laws about which rank might fly which bird, and the men who kept them left their trade in surnames: Hawk, Hawke, Hawker and Falconer. The word also served as a nickname for a sharp or predatory man. As an American first name Hawk is recent, part of a group of animal names that has grown steadily in the last two decades, and it belongs to the same instinct that gave Wolf and Bear.
Meaning
the bird of prey
Old English hafoc, a hawk, with relatives across the Germanic languages. The surname is either occupational, for a man who kept hawks, or descriptive, for a man thought hawk-like.
How the name formed
- hafoc
- hawk
- Hawk
Related forms: Habicht · Havik
Pronouncing Hawk
HAWK
One syllable, rhyming with talk. There is no other reading.
Nicknames for Hawk
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1982
- Most boys named
- 201787 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1768reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −45.7%19 in 2025, from 35
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hawk in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Habicht in German — related form
- Havik in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Hawks among us
people named Hawk are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Hawk
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tayvon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hawk's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tayvon climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tayvon's path sketches the road Hawk is walking now.
Hawk sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Hawk beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hawk in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a bird any child can be shown, and a striking one.
- Four letters and one syllable: fast to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- It has a documented English surname history behind it as well as the word.
- In American political vocabulary a hawk is someone who favors war, which will come up.
- A one-syllable name gives nothing to shorten and no change of register.
- Animal names are read as a statement about temperament, which a child may not share.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Hawk to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Hawk
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hawks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Hawk are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hawk in 2025?
- Hawk ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hawk?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Hawk — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hawk with classmates?
- Hawk will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hawk
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hawk? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hawk and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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